the_twilight_agefandomcom-20200214-history
The Universitas Alchemica
Before the Age of Wonders Alchemy was a strange profession populated by hermits and dabblers who created some interesting, but hardly magical items that are still in common use today. Many dreamed of creating a Philosopher’s Stone and discovering the secret to Immortality. Or, failing that, just turning lead into gold and making a quick profit. No one was more enamored of this than the Gnomes. True, they were more interested in the new and different ways to cause explosions than in the search for the Elixir Vitae, but they were fervent proponents of Alchemy’s place in the world. To that end, when the study of new and different magics was opened up during the Age of Wonders, several Gnomes jumped on the chance to legitimize their profession. They founded the Universitas Alchemica in Gringlebond, determined to find a way to transform their concoctions into true magic. It wasn’t until Chesley Firenze created the first AutoArcane device that these Alchemists saw the way to their dream. They quickly learned the craft of Artifice and went about trying to apply it to Alchemy. It didn’t take long before they started seeing how the AutoArcane techniques of the new Artificers could be changed to imbue magic into otherwise innocuous or outright poisonous concoctions that only needed that spark of power to become something more. Thus were the first Extracts created, and the modern craft of Alchemy was born. Soon after the discovery of Extraction came two further discoveries that have shaped the Alchemist profession ever since. The first was the creation of Mutagens, which greatly enhance an Alchemist physically at the cost of some of their mental faculties. These Mutagens come with sometimes severe drawbacks, including the fact that they are proven to be addictive and sometimes result in a serious and permanent splintering of a mind into two or more personalities. Most Alchemists try to minimize these dangers, but all of them wouldn’t do without the power the Mutagens give them. The second major discovery was the quick admixture of magic and caustic elements that results in an Alchemical Bomb. Needless to say, this was everything those old Gnomish Alchemists had dreamed of, and more. Most of the higher-end Arcane schools have attached colleges of Alchemy, and there are several stand-alone Alchemy schools in the Illuminus League. The premier school of Alchemy, however, remains the Universitas Alchemica in Gringlebond. The Universitas accepts all students able to pay their tuition (and quite a few who are not), not limiting itself to just Gnomes, though students often have to bring themselves to a more Gnomish way of thinking to excel in the school. Studies at the Universitas are renowned for being brutally hard on students. They are not only expected to learn the craft of Alchemy, but also the Arcane techniques needed to create Extracts and Mutagens and Bombs, and they’re expected to do this via practical experimentation. Most students do not make it out of their first year without experiencing the sweet sting of one of their experiments literally exploding in their face. By tradition, no student can be excused from studies or tests due to self-inflicted injury, and so students are fully expected to be on the top of their game regardless of how badly they’ve blown themselves up. There is the promise of a free Regeneration treatment if they pass their term-end exams to look forward to, and always the pressure to push their experiments further, to delve deeper into the secrets of Alchemical power. Thus many students are chronically missing eyes, fingers or entire limbs in the weeks leading up to their exams. Most outsiders who see this often remark that it’s no wonder that there’s such a high incidence of insanity among Alchemists. It’s seen as a quaint right of passage by the locals, and many a Gringlebonder has remarked that they aren’t a real Alchemist until you can properly call them ‘stumpy’. The Universitas is headed by a group of Alchemists who have invested their time and money in the school, and generally all share responsibility for teaching and testing the students. Any graduate is welcome to join this group, provided they can prove that they’re not doing it just to get the opportunity to blow the entire place up. Again. Category:World Powers